Filmmaking and farming may not seem to have anything in common, but
filmmaker Jay Craven unites them with a farming metaphor used to describe
his work.

"A New England farmer milks the cows, looks after the livestock,
tends to sugar maples, harvests crops, and does it all," he remarks.

Craven, another kind of New England worker, takes on a variety of
activities, including writing and directing feature films, teaching
classes on film culture at Marlboro College, and running both a production
company, Kingdom County Productions, and a youth filmmakers institute.
Like the New England farmer, Cravens work is intimately tied to the
land; his films have all taken place in Kingdom County, Vermont, a
fictional milieu created by the novelist Howard Frank Mosher, and were
shot in northern Vermont.

Cravens followed his first dramatic work, "High Water"
(1989), with feature films "Where the Rivers Flow North" (1994)
and "A Stranger in the Kingdom" (1998). Both were successful at
festivals, including Sundance, and have done well in the video market.
Kingdom County Productions, a non-profit production company founded in
1991 by Craven and Bess OBrien, produced all three.

In 1997 Kingdom County Productions created Fledgling Films, aimed at
educating teenagers about screenwriting and filmmaking. In 1998 Craven
directed "In Jest," assembling the collaborative efforts of 40
teenagers who worked together prior to and during Fledgling Films
Summer Institute. At last years Institute, kids wrote, directed, and
acted in 10 short films, which won awards at the Vermont Film Festival and
were recently screened at a benefit at the Lake Placid Film Forum. Craven
looks forward to this year's Summer Institute, where teens will complete 6
or more short films.

A strong sense of place is central to Cravens ideas about the
cultural value of filmmaking. "Many of this nations great
stories have originated with a sense of place," he says, referring to
novelists such as Steinbeck, Faulkner, or Welty, whose regional novels
evoked universal themes and responses. Craven focuses on a New England
location; he tries to render a time and place from a cultural point of
view, portraying stories and characters drawn from a specific region.
Excellent reception outside New England shows his films have a universal
appeal  but Craven believes local response is a vital part of his work.
Craven tours his completed films around New England towns.

"I can take my films into any small town and have a dialogue with
the audience about it, about how it connects culturally to their
town," he says. At a time when so much homogenization is taking place
in American society, Craven is gratified to see his films affirm that New
England is a unique cultural location.

Calling himself an activist by nature, Craven has long been
enthusiastic about making cultural events happen. He describes his work as
cultural filmmaking, distinct from commercial filmmaking.

"Developing a deep and lasting audience is a key issue for
independent filmmaking," he says. In many ways, this means cultural
education: audiences need to learn to become sensitive to film culture,
which will nourish a renewed interest in film beyond Hollywoods
blockbuster of the month.

"We need to see development of local arts programs," he
suggests, including repertory theaters and programs for youth and local
distribution. He hopes to see expanded support for regional films by
public television, particularly as the NEAs funds dwindle. He
recommends the local screening and distribution practiced by King County
Productions, in contrast to studio efforts (even by independent
subsidiaries) to build audience through prohibitively expensive ad
campaigns.

As the filmmaking industry in the US becomes increasingly commercial,
urban, and youth oriented, challenges grow for independent films that fall
outside the Hollywood demographic. Yet the process of building a deep and
lasting audience will keep independent filmmaking alive, declares Craven.

Craven expands his educational focus at Marlboro College, where he
instills students with a sense of film culture in classes on film history
and genres such as film noir, Third World cinema, and Asian cinema. He
teaches screenwriting, encouraging students to develop their own unique
voices while developing strong scripts and good characterization. Teaching
allows Craven to continue to develop his own thoughts about the role of
education in the development of the publics sense of film culture.

"Young people get so much media exposure," he says, "but
they have no opportunity to engage it in dialogue." He hopes his
classes help guide students towards broader understanding of media and
appreciate the culture around them.

Cravens future projects include a third film based on Moshers
novels, called "Disappearances," a whiskey-running adventure
starring Kris Kristofferson. This project, honored with the NEAs only
grant for a narrative film this year, will begin shooting in the fall or
next spring. Craven is excited to work on the story that first drew him to
Moshers work, but he says his first foray into special effects will
make the shoot especially challenging.

Craven has also developed a screenplay for a 1970s coming-of-age story
set in the aftermath of the Kent State shootings, called "The Year
that Trembled." He plans to film in Ohio this year or the next. He
also recently acquired the rights to Boston intellectual Howard Zinns
play "Emma," about the life of radical feminist Emma Goldman.

These exciting projects, plus ongoing work with the teens of Fledgling
Films, fundraising for Kingdom County Productions, teaching, and touring
New England with his completed films makes a busy roster for Craven.